Christopher Fry was an English
playwrightA playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
. He is best known for his verse dramas, notably
The Lady's Not for BurningThe Lady's Not for Burning is a 1948 play by Christopher Fry.A romantic comedy in three acts, set in verse, it is set in the Middle Ages, it reflects the world's "exhaustion and despair" following World War II, with a war-weary soldier who wants to die, and an accused witch who wants to live...
, which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s.
Early life
Fry was born as
Arthur Hammond Harris in
BristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, the son of Charles John Harris, a master builder who retired early to work full-time as a licensed
Lay ReaderA lay reader is a layperson authorized by a bishop of the Anglican Church to read some parts of a service of worship. They are members of the congregation called to preach or lead services, but not called to full-time ministry.Anglican lay readers are licensed by the bishop to a particular parish...
in the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, and his wife Emma Marguerite Fry Hammond Harris. While still young, he took his mother’s maiden name because, on very tenuous grounds, he believed her to be related to the 19th-century Quaker prison reformer
Elizabeth FryElizabeth Fry , née Gurney, was an English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist...
. He adopted Elizabeth Fry's faith, and became a Quaker.
After attending
Bedford Modern SchoolBedford Modern School is a British co-educational independent school in the Harpur area of Bedford, in the county of Bedfordshire, in England.Bedford Modern comprises a junior school and a senior school...
, where he wrote amateur plays, he became a schoolteacher, working at the Bedford Froebel Kindergarten and Hazelwood School in
LimpsfieldLimpsfield is a village and parish in the east of the county of Surrey, England near Oxted at the foot of the North Downs. It lies between the A25 to the south and the M25 motorway to the north, near the Clackett Lane service station...
,
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
In the 1920s he met the writer
Robert GittingsRobert William Victor Gittings CBE , was an English writer, biographer, BBC Radio producer, playwright and minor poet...
, who became a lifelong friend.
Career
Fry gave up his school career in 1932 to found the Tunbridge Wells Repertory Players, which he ran for three years, directing the English premiere of
George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
’s
Village Wooing in 1934. As a curtain raiser, he put on a revised version of a show he wrote when he was a schoolboy called
The Peregrines. He also wrote the music for
She Shall Have MusicShe Shall Have Music is a 1935 British musical comedy film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring Jack Hylton, June Clyde and Claude Dampier. Hylton played himself in a story built around a millionaire shipowner who hires a band to publicise his ships. It was also released as Wherever She Goes....
in 1935.
His play about Dr
Thomas John BarnardoThomas John Barnardo was a philanthropist and founder and director of homes for poor children, born in Dublin. From the foundation of the first Barnardo's home in 1870 to the date of Barnardo’s death, nearly 100,000 children had been rescued, trained and given a better life.- Early life :Barnardo...
, the founder of children’s homes, toured in a fund-raising amateur production in 1935 and 1936, including in its cast a young
Deborah KerrDeborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
.
His professional career began to take off when he was commissioned by the vicar of
SteyningSteyning is a small town and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles north of Shoreham-by-Sea...
,
West SussexWest Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
to write a play celebrating the local saint,
Cuthman of SteyningSaint Cuthmann of Steyning was an Anglo-Saxon hermit, church-builder and saint.-Birth:In the biographies of the saints called the Acta Sanctorum which were preserved at the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy it is said that he was born about 681 A.D., either in Devon or Cornwall, or more probably at...
, which became
The Boy With A Cart in 1938. It would be put on professionally in 1950 with young
Richard BurtonRichard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and it would be his first starring role.
Tewkesbury AbbeyThe Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Tewkesbury in the English county of Gloucestershire is the second largest parish church in the country and a former Benedictine monastery.-History:...
commissioned his next play,
The Tower, written in 1939, which was seen by the poet
T. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, who became a friend and is often cited as an influence. In 1939 Fry also became artistic director of Oxford Playhouse.
As a pacifist, he was a
conscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and served in the Non-Combatant Corps; for part of the time he cleaned London's sewers.
After the Second World War he wrote a comedy,
A Phoenix Too Frequent, which was produced at the
Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill GateThe Mercury Theatre was a small theatre in Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill Gate, London, notable for the productions of poetic dramas between 1933 and 1956, and as the home of the Ballet Rambert until 1987.- History :...
, London, in 1946, starring
Paul ScofieldDavid Paul Scofield, CH, CBE , better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen...
. The show is a comedy that is based upon
PetroniusGaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian age.-Life:...
's tale of the Ephesian widow, the false heroics of
DynameneIn Greek mythology, Dynamene was a Nereid or sea-nymph, one of the 50 daughters of Nereus and Doris. She, along with her sister Pherusa, was associated with the might and power of great ocean swells. She is mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony.-Popular culture:...
's mourning of her husband in his tomb, and her reawakening to the joy of life by a handsome officer who enters the tomb to rest on a course of duty.
The Firstborn was produced at the Oxford Playhouse in 1948. The plot is that of Egypt in the throes of a threatening conflict between master and slave, with
MosesMoses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
denouncing his privileges as an Egyptian-reared soldier and finding new responsibility as a leader of his people. The play was produced by actress
Katharine CornellKatharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
and featured two songs specially written for the play by
Leonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
.
In 1948 he wrote a commission for the
CanterburyCanterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
Festival,
Thor, With Angels.
Major works
Fry was then commissioned to write a play by
Alec ClunesAlexander "Alec" Demoro Sherriff Clunes was an English actor and stage manager.Among the plays he presented were Christopher Fry's famous play The Lady's Not For Burning. He gave the actor and dramatist Sir Peter Ustinov his first break with his production The House of Regrets. His film career was...
, manager of the
Arts TheatreThe Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...
in London. The result,
The Lady's Not for BurningThe Lady's Not for Burning is a 1948 play by Christopher Fry.A romantic comedy in three acts, set in verse, it is set in the Middle Ages, it reflects the world's "exhaustion and despair" following World War II, with a war-weary soldier who wants to die, and an accused witch who wants to live...
, was first performed there in 1948, directed by the actor
Jack HawkinsColonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...
. Due to its success, it transferred to the West End for a nine-month run, starring
John GielgudSir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
and featuring
Richard BurtonRichard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and
Claire BloomClaire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...
among the cast. It was presented on
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1950, again with Burton. The play marked a revival in popularity for poetic drama, most notably espoused by T. S. Eliot. It is the most performed of all his plays and inspired British Prime Minister
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
to declaim, “You turn if you want to — the lady’s not for turning,” at the Conservative Party conference in 1980.
In 1950 Fry adapted a translation of
Jean AnouilhJean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
’s
Invitation to the Castle as
Ring Round the MoonRing Round the Moon is a 1950 adaptation by the English dramatist Christopher Fry of Jean Anouilh's Invitation to the Castle . Peter Brook commissioned Fry to adapt the play and the first production of Ring Round the Moon was given at the Globe Theatre...
for director
Peter BrookPeter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
. He also wrote
Venus Observed, which was produced at the
St James's TheatreThe St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...
by
Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
.
A Sleep Of Prisoners followed in 1951, first performed at St Thomas' church in
Regent StreetRegent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
, London, in 1951 and later touring with
Denholm ElliottDenholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...
and
Stanley BakerSir Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer.-Early career:William Stanley Baker was born in Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales. In the mid-1930s his parents moved to London, where Baker spent most of his formative years...
.
The Dark is Light EnoughThe Dark is Light Enough is a 1954 play by Christopher Fry, which he wrote for Dame Edith Evans and set during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848...
, a winter play starring
Katharine CornellKatharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
and
Edith EvansDame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
in 1954, was third in a quartet of "seasonal" plays, featured incidental music written by
Leonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
. The production also featured
Tyrone PowerTyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
,
Lorne GreeneLorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
and
Marian WintersMarian Winters was an American actress of stage, film, and television.-Biography:Born in New York City, New York to a Jewish-American family, Winters made her debut in summerstock at age sixteen. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.She began her career on Broadway understudying...
.
Christopher PlummerArthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
had an understudy role that he wrote about in his memoir. This play followed the springtime of
The Lady’s Not For Burning and the autumnal
Venus Observed. The quartet was completed in 1970 with
A Yard Of Sun, representing summer.
His next plays were translations from French dramatists:
The Lark, an adaptation of
Jean AnouilhJean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
’s
L'Alouette (The Lark)L'Alouette is a 1952 play by Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc. It was presented on Broadway in English in 1955, starring Julie Harris as Joan and Boris Karloff as Pierre Cauchon. It was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden.The English adaptation was by Lillian Hellman and the incidental music was by...
, in 1955;
Tiger At The GatesThe Trojan War Will Not Take Place is a play written in 1935 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. In 1955 it was translated into English by Christopher Fry...
, based on
Jean GiraudouxHippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
’s
La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu, also in 1955;
Duel of Angels Duel of Angels is a 1963 English adaptation by Christopher Fry of the play Pour Lucrèce written in 1944 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. The play is based on the story of Lucretia, the virtuous Roman housewife who was raped and, finding no support from her husband and his friends, is driven...
, adapted from Giraudoux's
Pour Lucrèce, in 1960; and
Judith Judith is a play written in 1931 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux.-Original productions:Judith was translated into English by John K. Savacool, in The Modern Theatre, ed. Eric Bentley, vol. 3 , and by Christopher Fry, in The Drama of Jean Giraudoux, vol...
, also by Giraudoux, in 1962.
Although Fry lived until 2005, his poetic style of drama began to fall out of fashion with the advent of the
Angry Young MenThe "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...
of British theatre in the 1950s. Despite working mainly for the cinema in the 1960s, he continued to write plays, including
Curtmantle for the
Royal Shakespeare CompanyThe Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in 1962, and
A Yard of Sun – the fourth in his seasonal quartet – at the
Nottingham PlayhouseThe Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.-The building:...
in 1970.
Curtmantles (1962) plot deals with
Henry II of EnglandHenry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
and his conflict with
Thomas BecketThomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
.
A Yard of Sun (1970) is set just after World War II at the time of the famous annual horse race
Palio di SienaThe Palio di Siena is a horse race that is held twice each year, on July 2 and August 16, in Siena, Italy...
in the streets of
SienaSiena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
.
After the success of his post-war plays Fry bought Trebinshwn, a fine
RegencyThe Regency style of architecture refers primarily to buildings built in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style...
house in Breconshire. When living there he used to walk over the hill behind the house, the Allt, to
LlansantffraedLlansantffraed is a parish in Powys, Wales near Brecon.The parish is the birth and burial place of the poet Henry Vaughan whose grave in the churchyard overlooks the River Usk.- External links :* at geograph.org.uk-Notes:...
church, where the 17th century poet
Henry VaughanHenry Vaughan was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet.Vaughan and his twin brother the hermetic philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales...
is buried, and Vaughan's poetry was a strong influence on him.
In later life Fry lived in the village of
East DeanEast Dean is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located nine kilometres north east of Chichester on a narrow road between Singleton on the A286 and Upwaltham on the A285 road....
in
West SussexWest Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, and died, from natural causes, in
ChichesterChichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
in 2005. His wife, Phyllis, whom he married in 1936, died in 1987. He was survived by their son, Tam.
During the next ten years he concentrated on further translations, including
Henrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
’s
Peer GyntPeer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
and
Edmond RostandEdmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...
’s
Cyrano de BergeracCyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....
which were produced at the
Chichester Festival TheatreChichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
.
In 1986 he wrote
One Thing More, a play about the 7th century Northumbrian monk Caedmon who was suddenly given the gift of composing song; it was first performed in
Chelmsford CathedralChelmsford Cathedral in the county town of Chelmsford, Essex, England is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Cedd. It became a cathedral when the Anglican Diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914 and is the seat of the Bishop of Chelmsford....
and then broadcast on the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, with further productions in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and
OxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
His last play,
A Ringing Of Bells, was commissioned by his old school,
Bedford Modern SchoolBedford Modern School is a British co-educational independent school in the Harpur area of Bedford, in the county of Bedfordshire, in England.Bedford Modern comprises a junior school and a senior school...
, and performed there in 2000. The following year, a new production was performed at the
National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
.
Revivals
Revivals of his plays include a staged reading of
The Lady's Not For Burning at the
Royal National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in 2001 as one of the 100 best plays of the 20th century, with actors
Alex JenningsAlex Jennings is an English actor whose roles have included Charles, Prince of Wales in The Queen .-Early years:...
,
Prunella ScalesPrunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
and
Samuel WestSamuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
. West went on to produce
The Lady’s Not For Burning at
Chichester Festival TheatreChichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
's
Minerva TheatreMinerva Theatre may refer to:*Minerva Theatre, Chichester*Minerva Theatre, Kolkata...
in 2002 with Nancy Carroll and Benjamin Whitrow. In 2007, it was performed in a new production at the
Finborough TheatreThe Finborough Theatre is a fifty seat theatre in the Earls Court area of London, United Kingdom , which presents new British writing, UK and premieres of new plays, primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, music theatre, and rarely seen...
, London.
Ring Round The Moon was revived at the Theatre Royal Haymarket 1967-68. starring
John StandingSir John Ronald Leon Standing, 4th Baronet is an English actor.-Early life:Standing was born John Ronald Leon in London, the son of Kay Hammond , an actress, and Sir Ronald George Leon, a stockbroker...
and
Angela ThorneAngela Thorne is an English actress who is best known for her roles in To the Manor Born and Anyone for Denis?-Early life:Angela Thorne was born in Karachi, British India, , in 1939...
. In 2008 it was revived again, directed by
Sean MathiasSean Gerard Mathias is a British theatre director, film director, writer and actor.Mathias was born in Swansea, south Wales. He is known for directing the film, Bent, and for directing highly acclaimed theatre productions in London, New York, Cape Town, Los Angeles and Sydney...
, once again starring
Angela ThorneAngela Thorne is an English actress who is best known for her roles in To the Manor Born and Anyone for Denis?-Early life:Angela Thorne was born in Karachi, British India, , in 1939...
, graduating from the role of young Diana to the wheelchair-using Madame Desmortes. Other cast members included
JJ FeildJohn Joseph Feild , known professionally as J. J. Feild, is an Anglo-American actor.-Early and personal life:John Joseph Feild was born in Boulder, Colorado, to British academic Reshad Feild and his American wife. Through his father, he is a relative of British astronomer John Feild...
,
Joanna DavidJoanna David is a British actress, best known for her television work.She was born in Lancaster, England. Her first major television role was as Elinor Dashwood in the BBC's 1971 dramatisation of Sense and Sensibility followed a year later in War and Peace, in which she played Sonya...
,
Belinda LangBelinda Lang is an English actress, best known in the United Kingdom for her role as Bill Porter in the long running BBC sitcom 2point4 children .-Television:...
,
John RammJohn Ramm is a British comedian and actor. He plays Raymond Box in the National Theatre of Brent, and has also appeared on film and television in Robin Hood , The Palace, Foyle's War and as Makepeace's neighbour in Shakespeare in Love.On stage, he has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and
Leigh LawsonLeigh Lawson is a film and stage actor, director, and writer.-Career:Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Lawson has acted in film and television since the early 1970s, directed plays in the West End and on Broadway...
.
Film and TV writing
Beginning in the 1950s, many of Fry's plays were adapted for the screen, mainly television. One of the most recent was
The Lady’s Not For Burning for Yorkshire TV, starring
Kenneth BranaghKenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
, in 1987.
In 1954, he collaborated with John Cannan on a screenplay for a film version of
John GayJohn Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
’s
The Beggar's OperaThe Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
, for director
Peter BrookPeter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
, starring
Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
. He was also one of the writers of the classic 1959 film,
Ben-HurBen-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...
, directed by
William WylerWilliam Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
. But he was uncredited for his efforts on the epic, as was
Gore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
. The sole writing credit and Academy Award nomination instead went to
Karl TunbergKarl Tunberg was an American screenwriter and occasional film producer.Born in Spokane, Washington, Tunberg's earliest writings included short stories, and a novel entitled While the Crowd Cheers, which was published in 1935 by the Macaulay Company...
. He collaborated on other screenplays including
Barabbas, which starred
Anthony QuinnAntonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
in 1961, and
The Bible: In the BeginningThe Bible: In the Beginning is a 1966 Biblical epic film recounting the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis. It was a joint American/Italian production conceived by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Huston. The music score is by Toshirô Mayuzumi. The production was photographed by...
, directed by
John HustonJohn Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
, in 1966. Other screenplays include the documentary
The Queen Is Crowned (1953).
His television movie scripts are
The Canary (1950),
The Tenant of Wildfell HallThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel by English author Anne Brontë, published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell...
(1968),
The Brontës of Haworth (1973),
The Best of Enemies (1976),
Sister Dora (1977), and
Star Over Bethlehem (1981).
Works
- She Shall Have Music (1934), with Monte Crick and F. Eyton
- Open Door (1936)
- The Boy With a Cart (1938)
- Robert of Sicily: Opera for Children (1938), music by Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
- Seven at a Stroke: A Play for Children (1939), music by Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
- The Tower (1939)
- Thursday's Child (1939), music by Martin Shaw
Martin Edward Fallas Shaw OBE, FRCM, DMus was an English composer, conductor and theatre producer...
- A Phoenix Too Frequent (1946)
- The Lady's Not for Burning
The Lady's Not for Burning is a 1948 play by Christopher Fry.A romantic comedy in three acts, set in verse, it is set in the Middle Ages, it reflects the world's "exhaustion and despair" following World War II, with a war-weary soldier who wants to die, and an accused witch who wants to live...
(1948)
- Thor, With Angels (1948)
- The Firstborn (1948)
- Venus Observed (1950)
- Ring Round the Moon
Ring Round the Moon is a 1950 adaptation by the English dramatist Christopher Fry of Jean Anouilh's Invitation to the Castle . Peter Brook commissioned Fry to adapt the play and the first production of Ring Round the Moon was given at the Globe Theatre...
(1950), adapted from Jean AnouilhJean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
's L'Invitation au ChâteauInvitation to the Castle is a 1947 satirical play by the French playwright Jean Anouilh. It was adapted in 1950 by Christopher Fry as Ring Round the Moon. The play concerns two twins, a cold, manipulative playboy Hugo, and his sensitive brother Frédéric. Frédéric is madly in love with Diana, the...
- A Winter's Tale (1951) music by Fry with arrangements by Leslie Bridgewater
- A Sleep of Prisoners (1951)
- The Dark is Light Enough
The Dark is Light Enough is a 1954 play by Christopher Fry, which he wrote for Dame Edith Evans and set during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848...
(1954)
- The Lark (1955), adapted from Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
's play
- Tiger At The Gates
The Trojan War Will Not Take Place is a play written in 1935 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. In 1955 it was translated into English by Christopher Fry...
(1956), adapted from Jean GiraudouxHippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
's play
- Crown of the Year (1958), music by Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
- Duel of Angels
Duel of Angels is a 1963 English adaptation by Christopher Fry of the play Pour Lucrèce written in 1944 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. The play is based on the story of Lucretia, the virtuous Roman housewife who was raped and, finding no support from her husband and his friends, is driven...
(1958), adapted from Jean GiraudouxHippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
's play Pour Lucrèce
- Curtmantle (1961)
- Judith
Judith is a play written in 1931 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux.-Original productions:Judith was translated into English by John K. Savacool, in The Modern Theatre, ed. Eric Bentley, vol. 3 , and by Christopher Fry, in The Drama of Jean Giraudoux, vol...
(1962), adapted from Jean GiraudouxHippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
's play
- The Boy and the Magic (1964), adapted from Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
's play
- Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
(1970), based on Johan Fillinger's translation of Henrik Ibsen's play
- A Yard of Sun (1970)
- Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....
(1975), adapted from Edmond RostandEdmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...
's play
- Can You Find Me: A Family History (1979)
- One Thing More (or Caedmon Construed) (1986)
- A Ringing of Bells (2001)
Awards
- 1948 Shaw Prize Fund for The Lady's Not for Burning
The Lady's Not for Burning is a 1948 play by Christopher Fry.A romantic comedy in three acts, set in verse, it is set in the Middle Ages, it reflects the world's "exhaustion and despair" following World War II, with a war-weary soldier who wants to die, and an accused witch who wants to live...
- 1951 William Foyle Poetry Prize for Venus Observed
- 1951 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for The Lady's Not for Burning
The Lady's Not for Burning is a 1948 play by Christopher Fry.A romantic comedy in three acts, set in verse, it is set in the Middle Ages, it reflects the world's "exhaustion and despair" following World War II, with a war-weary soldier who wants to die, and an accused witch who wants to live...
'
- 1952 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Venus Observed
- 1956 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for The Tiger At The Gates
- 1956 Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nomination for The Tiger At The Gates
- 1962 Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry
- 1962 Heinemann Award, Royal Society of Literature for Curmantle
- 1966 Doctor of Arts
The Doctor of Arts is a discipline-based terminal doctoral degree that was originally conceived and designed to be an alternative to the traditional research-based Doctor of Philosophy and the education-based Doctor of Education . Like other doctorates, the D.A. is an academic degree of the...
from Manchester Metropolitan UniversityManchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
- 1971 Writers Guild Best British Television Dramatization award nomination for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- 1987 Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
from Oxford University
- 1988 Honorary Fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
- 1994 Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
from De Montfort UniversityDe Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...
- 1994 Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
from University of SussexThe University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
- 2000 Benson Medal
The Benson Medal is a medal awarded by the Royal Society of Literature in the UK.It was founded in 1916 by A. C. Benson who was a Fellow of the Society, to honour those who produce "meritorious works in poetry, fiction, history and belles-lettres."...
Fellow and Recipient
Quotes
External links
- Christopher Fry: An Appreciation (1951) by Derek Stanford
Derek Stanford FRSL was a British writer, known as a biographer, essayist and poet. He was educated at Upper Latymer School, Hammersmith, London.As a conscientious objector during World War II he served in the Non-combatant Corps...
- Christopher Fry Obituary from The Telegraph
- Christopher Fry Obituary from The Guardian
- Christopher Fry Broadway productions of his plays
- Christopher Fry New York Times obituary
- Christopher Fry Theatre history website Rogues and Vagabonds
- Christopher Fry Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...